Open English Translation YHN (JHN) Chapter 7

7 After all this, Yeshua travelled around Galilee. (He didn’t want to travel around Yudea because the leaders there wanted to execute him.) 2 As it was now getting close to the Jewish Feast With Tents,[ref] 3 his brothers said to him, “You should leave this place and go down to Yudea so that all your followers can see the miracles that you’re doing. 4 If you want to become well-known, you don’t do things out of the main stream. If you want to do miracles, go and show yourself to the wider world. 5 (You see, not even Yeshua’s own half-brothers believed that he came from God.)

6 So Yeshua responded, “Well, you guys can do that any time, but it’s not the right time for me yet. 7 All the people won’t hate you guys, but they do hate me because I teach about the evil things they are doing. 8 You all go on down to Yerushalem ahead of me. I’m not going to the feast yet because it’s not yet the right time for me.” 9 After saying this, Yeshua stayed up in Galilee.

10 But after his half-brothers had left to go down to Yerushalem, Yeshua also went—not in the public limelight but just incognito so to speak. 11 However at the celebrations, the Jewish religious leaders were searching for him, and were asking around where he was.

12 Even among the crowds there was a lot of quiet banter with some saying that Yeshua is a good man and others complaining that he was misleading the people. 13 Either way, no one was speaking out in public about him, because they were afraid of the reaction of the religious leaders.

14 Finally sometime in the middle of the celebrations, Yeshua went into the temple and started teaching in there. 15 Even the Jewish leaders were surprised, asking, “How can this man know so much when he hasn’t been trained as a teacher?”

16 Yeshua himself responded, “My teaching doesn’t come from me, but from the one who sent me. 17 If anyone wants to do God’s will, they’ll soon figure out whether my teaching comes from God or if I’m just making it up myself. 18 Any person who just teaches their own thoughts is just seeking their own advancement, but anyone who wants to promote the one who sent them, this is authentic and there’s no hidden self-interest. 19 Didn’t Mosheh write down God’s commands for you, yet not a single one of you obeys them. Why are you wanting to execute me?”

20 “You must be demon-possessed,” said some in the crowd, “Who would be wanting to execute you.”

21 Yeshua responded, “I did one miracle and you were all amazed. 22 Mosheh gave you the command about circumcision (even though it actually came from before his time), but to obey this, you’ll even circumcise a baby boy on the Rest Day.[ref] 23 So if a baby boy can be circumcised on the Rest Day so that Mosheh’s commands aren’t broken, they why did you get angry with me because I made a man healthy on the Rest Day?[ref] 24 Don’t just ‘judge’ things so that you yourselves look good, but judge impartially, seeking the best for others.”

25 After this, some of the locals from Yerushalem started asking, “Isn’t this the man they were wanting to execute? 26 Well, here he is teaching in public, yet they’re not even confronting him. Perhaps the leaders know that he really is the messiah? 27 But we even know where this man is from. Surely when the messiah comes, no one would know his family background.”

28 So as Yeshua continued teaching, he called out, “Indeed you all know me and my home and my family. But I didn’t come here of my own accord, but the one who sent me here is truthful, even though you don’t even know him. 29 I know him, because I came from him, indeed, he was the one who sent me here.”

30 So now they really want to arrest him, but no one touched him because it was not yet the proper time. 31 Many in the crowd did believe that he was from God and they were saying, “When the messiah comes, would he be doing greater miracles than what we’ve seen this man do?”

32 The Pharisee party heard the crowd muttering about these things and sent out some of their servants along with the chief priests to go and arrest Yeshua. 33 So Yeshua said, “I’ll only be with you all for a short while longer and then I’ll be going to the one who sent me. 34 You’ll look for me but won’t be able to find me, and you can’t go where I’ll be going.”

35 The leaders wondered, “Where could he be going that we wouldn’t be able to find him? Will he go and live with the Jews living out there among the Greeks and start teaching the Greeks? 36 And what does he mean about looking for him and not being able to find him, and not being able to go where he goes?”

37 On the final climax day of the celebrations, Yeshua stood there and shouted, “Anyone who’s thirsty, come here to me and drink.[ref] 38 Whoever trusts me will have rivers of living water flowing out from him just like the scriptures say.”[ref] 39 He was talking about God’s spirit that the ones who trust him would receive in the future—not yet because Yeshua hadn’t been lifted up to heaven yet.

40 When some in the crowd heard his teaching, they said, “He really is the coming prophet.” 41 Others said, “He must be the messiah.”

But some pointed out, “The messiah won’t come from Galilee. 42 Don’t the scriptures say that he’ll be a descendant of King David and that he’ll come from David’s town of Bethlehem?”[ref] 43 And so the crowd was divided about Yeshua. 44 Some of the Pharisees’ servants wanted to arrest him, but decided to leave him alone for now.

45 So when the servants returned back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, they were asked, “Why haven’t you brought him?”

46 They answered, “We’ve never heard anyone speak like he does.”

47 “Don’t tell us that you’ve also been taken in by him?” the Pharisees asked them. 48 “None of our leaders or any of us Pharisees believe that he’s from God. 49 But all these people ignorant of the scriptures are bewitched.”

50 Now Nicodemus (the one who had previously visited Yeshua) spoke up,[ref] 51 “Since when did our rules allow us to judge a person before we’ve even heard them out and investigated what they’re doing?”

52 “So do you come from Galilee as well?” they sneered, “Look in the scriptures and you’ll soon see that no prophet emerges out of Galilee.”The story of the woman caught in adultery does not appear in the majority of the oldest manuscripts that we have. Hence, it is not included in this translation. (That doesn’t necessarily mean that the event never happened—just that it almost certainly wasn’t part of Yohan’s original account.)

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